How long have you had your car? In my opinion this occurs over a period of time, my roof as noticeably stiffened up since I bought it in Sept last year.
I have had mine since mid March this year. I am not sure though how hood stiffness can equate to clearance issues unless something is being forced. My hood was quite stiff after cold nights with no issues. I will have to wait and see.
I had a close look at the almost zero miles meteor grey ND in the dealer’s today while waiting for my NC to take its turn on the lift, and while the retracted roof panel was set back almost a centimetre from the hoops, you could see where it had already touched both of them in passing for a couple of centimetres starting about one-two centimetres up.
Mine was booked into the dealer for the roof hoop rubbing fix today. I was originally told it would take about 1.5 hours. Dropped it off just before 8.00am this morning, arrived back to collect it just before 6.00pm to be told we’ve just tried to ring you, your car isn’t ready yet!
The service department then proceed to tell me that the Mazda Bulletin for the fix requires quite a lot longer to fix than they had realised…
On the plus side I took along the scuff plates/aluminium sills which I had ordered in from MX-5 parts and they have fitted these to the car for me.
I had a quick look at the Mk4’s on their forecourt, there were two with the roof rubbing against the hoops, but the one inside the showroom had a good few milimetres gap.
I’m looking forward to see the difference with mine tomorrow, along with its shiny new sills!
Ours was supposed to go in to the dealers 3 weeks ago, but they keep postponing saying the parts aren’t in yet!
Not happy.
Mine has supposedly had the “fix” but I’m still not happy. They don’t seem able to tell me what they did to fix it! It still appears to be rubbing one side, even with 2 of us outside the car putting the hood down!
I’ve spomen to the dealer & they say try it for a week or two & if not happy being it back again. I think it will have to go back again…
My dealer said it took them 3 hours to do the fix. I don’t know exactly what they do but I believe it involves a fair bit of dismantling stuff and adding some spacers. Having completed the work there is now a very tiny gap between the hood and the hoops whereas before it was touching. I was expecting to see a slightly bigger gap following the fix, but I will be keeping an eye on it.
Yes, I was expecting to see a significant difference too, but it really isn’t.
Was I expecting too much…I don’t think so?
After seeing a range of photos on the Miata site I now realise that ours is also showing the telltale marks. For those of you that have no evidence I suggest you look a little closer as it is only today that it became apparent to me and ours is 6 weeks old.
I have sealed the roof 3 times with fabsil last week and did not notice the marks.
I am having a wee bit of trouble trying to get a full understanding of the problem being described here as I haven’t yet taken delivery of my new car. Can somebody tell me whether this issue occurs when the seats are pushed back as far as they go as this is what I think is the case?
I am due to collect my Sport Nav ND in SR tomorrow and have been trawling the forum to try and find out potential problem spots which I can pay special attention to when I arrive at the dealership.
Thank you,
Alan
It’s not to do with seat position. When you open the roof the leading edge of the roof touches the rear of the hoops behind the seats. The roof scratches the black finish on the trim and will eventually wear the leading edge of the roof. The roof has a 3year warranty and the trim will be replaced if it’s marked, so don’t worry too much about it. Just mention it to the dealer if it affects your car and they’ll sort it.
Finally have mine booked in for July, its booked in for a whole week! My roof is being recovered and the hoops refurbished, I’ll let you know how it gets on.
Unless Mazda have done a proper modification to alleviate the root cause of the problem, then you will be back to the same situation in a couple of months. In my mind the best solution would be for Mazda to manufacture and fit new roll hoop mouldings that are shallower and increase clearance to the leading edge of the hood when it is down. This would be a far more economical solution. Maybe this is what they mean by “refurbished” hoops. As for what some people seem to be saying, that their dealers are using spacers to move the seat bulkhead forwards that will surely compromise stiffness and safety and is a bodge job at best. I have always raised and lowered the hood from within the car and have noticed that the clearance can vary from about 10mm to next to nothing. Very strange. I have tried operating the hood from outside the car and it makes no difference at all. The only reason I can see for Mazda instructing users to do this is because they are afraid somebody in the US will pull a muscle and try to sue them.
Ours was done yesterday, seems a lot better, will see how it goes.
Hi Stickman. I would be very interested to hear from you what the dealer actually did. Did they give you any details? Was it a temporary fix, an adjustment or a proper fix? In my mind the only proper way to cure the problem is to replace the plastic mouldings covering the rear of the roll hoops with new shallower versions to increase the clearance. The clearance on mine seems to vary from day to day. I don’t really want to take my car in for what may just be a temporary fix and the problem return. I hope they have done a proper job for you.
I got the TSB done last week. Initially the dealer open the roof from outside and show me that all was ok. I was a little in doubt, as I prefer to do this from inside. I found out that once the roof is open one time it never fold back the same after.
So I wait a few days and tried again. To be honest by opening from the inside how I usually do it, it did not clear the hoop. So I decided to analyse the system better. What I found out, which is working really good now, is to un-latch the roof, but before moving it backwards, I latch the mechanism back to its locking position, and as I move the roof back I put my hand at the edge of the roof, and not at the top of it, trying to push it back, towards the trunk really and not down. As I get close to the locking position I move my hand to the top of the roof to lock it, but not near the edge of it as if I was on top of the locking mechanism, but more towards the middle of the roof. By doing this the gap is really good and I clear the hoop perfectly. Now I don’t know if the TSB is also helping here or not. Maybe some guys with the issue can try this out and report back.
You can noticed that the hook of the latching mechanism, is facing a little downwards at the unlock position, as it moves back it hits a specific position at the roof resting position (Mazda has even lay that part with some kind of carpet material), and because the latch is spring loaded, this may cause the roof to tip towards the front (hoop side), creating the interference. But with the latch mechanism locked again, the hook is more horizontal, and by the time it finds it recess position, this spring effect of the roof is not in place, and I believe this helps the roof sits in place I little better.
Let me know how you guys go with this tip. As I am trying to find out if this really helps or not. For me the TSB did not bring the effect I was hopping (by the way, I left my car in the morning and got it back by the end of the day).
I have tried this procedure a few times now, and it is working really good for me. OK, you will not be able to open the roof in a record opening time, but at least now I don’t need to be outside to open the roof every time without issues.
Mine is in with Nunns Mazda at Grimsby, having the hoops replaced new hood and spacer kit fitted at the moment. Hood was rubbing the hoops and caused some wear to the hood, Mazda has issued a notice about it to dealers so it is know by them. Nuunns took some picks and sent to Mazda who instantly gave the go ahead for new hoops, new hood and spacer kit to be fitted.
I did notice it did not rub every time I put the hood down so check carefully folks its obviously a known fault to Mazda
How did yours work out, mine went in yesterday. Popped in today to pickup some bits I left in the car and was told the seats where out! Not an easy job by all accounts then
Hi Grumpy Badger/Pep. I would really appreciate if you could let me know about the method used to fix the problem. Would it be possible to let me know where the spacers are actually fitted and how they improve the hood clearance issue. I don’t think my car is too bad. I would have thought that if the problem was endemic, Mazda would recall the MX5’s sold so far and fix the hood rubbing issues before that many hoods got damaged and had to be replaced. This would be the most economical solution for Mazda. The only reason I can think that Mazda have not done this is if it depends on the manufacturing tolerances of the parts that affect the clearance when assembled, which could account for some cars being more badly affected than others. Cheers.
Mine was pretty bad the hoops are scratched and the roof material worn away, no sign of the car yet.